This Super Bowl Sunday the choices for seeing a movie on the best day of the year to go were terrible if there was going to be something Somara and I could agree on. Glass was out because she’s not a fan of the predecessors. There wasn’t anything decent at the discount theater and not much worth the effort for driving all the way to Alamo South Lamar, Mueller or Slaughter. However, Kid did have Patrick Stewart, just no enough of him to save this for adults.
The premise revolves around Alex, an English kid being raised by a single mother but before his father bailed, he was left with a book about the legend of King Arthur. One day after a typical day of getting bullied by two older classmates, Alex ditches his tormentors in a construction site where he finds Excalibur. Curious, he succeeds in pulling the sword from the stone and begins researching with his best friend Bedders what the runes written on it mean. Excalibur‘s extraction also awakens Merlin, jointly played by Patrick Stewart and Angus Imrie (as per the legend, the great wizard ages backwards), who explains to Alex he is Arthur’s worthy heir to keep Morgana from conquering the world. The hardest part is finding the other incarnations of the Knights of the Round Table to assist, spoiler, it’s Alex’s bullies with their obvious names Lance and Kaye.
That’s enough to go on since Kid is on par with the recent Aquaman, it’s a by-the-numbers film and all the “surprises” are very obvious. Children will enjoy this due to the last act being a giant Home Alone battle between Alex’s school versus Morgana’s legions.
Alamo Extras: Fantasy silent movie clip; lame King Arthur cartoon which may have been made by the Rocky & Bullwinkle team; Trailers for Sword of Lancelot, Knight Riders, Excalibur, Excalibur Kid, A Kid in King Arthur’s Court and The Sword in the Stone; scene from Thirties movie Galahad & Merlin, a Galahad serial, a magic trick set to Hank Williams music involving coins; and a trick question I failed at: Who has met Merlin? The Fonz or Batman? The answer is both. I knew Batman met Merlin at least once in the Brave and the Bold cartoon but I forgot about the Saturday morning show with the Happy Days gang traveling in a time machine.